The fight capped off the un-televised preliminary card of UFC Fight Night 21, which took place tonight at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, N.C.

However, two of the card’s most impressive performances came from middleweights Yushin Okami and Gerald Harris.

Winner used an effective sprawl, and striking perfected at the U.K.’s Team Rough House allowed the fighter to deliver punches and kicks from all angles. The constant attacks left Oliveira in defensive mode and oftentimes frustrated throughout the 15-minute affair.

In the end, the judges gave Winner the victory via scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 30-27.

With his back-to-back UFC wins, Winner moves to 11-3 overall and 2-1 in the UFC. After posting his first UFC win with a decision victory over John Gunderson in January, Oliveira now drops to 10-3 (1-2 UFC).

In what was likely a must-win situation for both fighters, Jacob Volkmann‘s lightweight debut was a successful one as the former welterweight topped Ronys Torres for a split-decision victory. Aside from one judge’s inexplicable 29-28 score in favor of Torres, it was an otherwise dominating performance for Volkmann, who took the fight 30-27 on the other two judges’ scorecards. (MMAjunkie.com also scored it 30-27 for Volkmann.)

Only the first round proved close, and Volmann spent much of the fight with his opponent’s back and delivering strikes from behind. With his Minnesota Martial Arts Academy opponent continually closing the distance, Torres never had the room to mount much offense and spent most of the contest fighting defensively.

Although not the flashiest win, an effective gameplan netted Volkmann (10-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) his long-awaited first UFC win while Torres (14-3 MMA, 0-2 UFC) risks a pink slip after his second straight loss.

In a bout between a pair of scrappy lightweights, Nick Lentz eventually controlled the bout’s pace once his takedowns proved successful and overcame some hard shots from opponent Rob Emerson to claim a unanimous-decision victory.

Emerson kept the action close in the first round with crisp strikes, but Lentz soon dictated the pace with takedowns and a smothering top game. Emerson’s corner could sense the fighter’s disadvantage on the mat and continually begged for him to return to his feet. Lentz, though, kept dominant top positions and delivered stinging elbows to earn the unanimous decision, 29-28, 30-27 and 29-28.

Lentz (18-3-2 MMA, 2-0-1 UFC), coming off a majority draw with Thiago Tavares, remains undefeated in the UFC and runs his unbeaten streak to seven. Emerson (9-9 MMA, 3-3-1 UFC), once one of the top surprises coming out of “TUF 5,” has now lost three of his past.

Tibau dropped his opponent with a pair of straight lefts and then shoved Uno to the mat after he got to his knees early in the first round. With the fighter on his stomach, Tibau unloaded a flurry of blows from behind and forced the stoppage moments later when Uno rolled to his back to absorb more punishment. The victory came at the 4:13 mark of the round, though Uno remained dazed long after the fight-ending bell.

“This year is going to be a great year for me,” Tibau said. “Starting the year knocking out a legend such as Caol Uno is great.”

Tibau has now won four of his past five UFC fights while Uno, an early-decade UFC star, remains winless (0-2-1) since his return to the organization in 2009.

In an entertaining bout likely to silence some of his critics, longtime middleweight contender Yushin Okami (24-5 MMA, 8-2 UFC) posted an impressive standup display to batter Lucio Linhares (13-6 MMA, 0-2 UFC) so thoroughly that officials refused to let the fight continue past the midway mark of the second round.

Okami dropped his opponent in the first round with an uppercut and then continued the assault in the second with punches from all angles. The barrage of strikes forced the referee to call for the doctor, who wouldn’t allow the fight to continue due to facial cuts and a possible broken nose suffered by Linhares. The TKO stoppage came at the 2:47 mark.

“[My striking] is something I’ve been working on a lot,” Okami said. “I feel like my striking is becoming better each day.

“I’m happy with the victory today. It’s the first step climbing back up the middleweight ladder.”

In an another middleweight bout, “The Ultimate Fighter 7″ cast member Gerald Harris continued his recent run of success since he left the reality show and picked up his ninth straight win, including his second consecutive victory in the UFC. Despite facing accomplished ground fighter and previously unbeaten Mario Miranda (11-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC), Harris (15-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC) was content to keep the fight standing – even after he was wobbled early in the opening round.

However, late in that first round, the three-time NCAA Division I wrestling national qualifier connected with a wild hook and followed with additional blows to Miranda to force a TKO stoppage at the 4:49 mark.

“After taking some shots, I was able to keep my composure,” Harris said. “I knew he was hurt, and I knew I had to finish him and get the [win].”

In the night’s opening bout, Charlie Brenneman (11-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) used a dominant first round and solid third to top fellow UFC welterweight newcomer Jason High (9-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) via unanimous decision. Brenneman, an NCAA Division I wrestler who won the first season of Spike TV’s “Pros vs. Joes” reality-competition series, used takedowns and survived his opponent’s multiple guillotine attempts to take the fight via scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.

“It was a good performance, not a great performance,” Brenneman said. “(But) I learned tonight that I belong on the UFC, and I’m here to stay.”

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